Highland Council Leader welcomes UK Government Broadband proposals

Highland Council welcomes the proposals by the
UK government that access to fast broadband should be recognised as a Universal
Service Obligation (USO).

Under the proposals, access to broadband at a speed of at least 10 Megabits per
second (Mbps) would be a legal right for every home and business in the UK
regardless of where they live. This would give broadband the same status as
water and electricity.

The UK government has pledged to make superfast broadband available to 95% of
UK by 2017. It is hoped that this initiative will help to reach the remaining
5% who currently do not have access.

Leader of the Highland Council, Councillor Margaret Davidson said: “Superfast
broadband is currently available to more than 135,000 premises in Highland. We
are working with partner organisations to ensure that an effective service is
delivered to everyone in the area.

“While we welcome the proposals from the UK government, the devil is in the detail
and we need to understand what that detail is. We are committed to the further
work required to meet our communities’ ambitions for Highland as a competitive,
digital region.”